President Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to “nationalize the voting” on Dan Bongino’s right-wing podcast on Monday is an unworkable authoritarian fantasy. But it still matters because the way Trump thinks out loud about election interference still functions as a damaging radio signal to his allies and opponents.
On the podcast, which Bongino has returned to hosting after his tortured stint as deputy director of the FBI, Trump tossed out new dangerous ideas regarding U.S. elections. In the middle of a mendacious “Great Replacement” theory-inspired rant alleging that undocumented immigrants are “brought” into the U.S. to “vote illegally,” Trump said, “It’s amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it. The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over, we should take over the voting in at least, many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked.”
Trump’s latest comments follow his remarks that sometimes a country “needs a dictator.”
Nationalizing elections would plainly run afoul of the most basic rules and norms of the U.S electoral system. As The Washington Post notes, “Under the Constitution, the ‘Times, Places and Manner’ of holding elections are determined by each state, not the federal government. Congress has the power to set election rules, but the Constitution does not give the president any role on that subject.” David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, told CNN, “The founders, when they drafted the Constitution, were very concerned about an unscrupulous executive trying to seize power through seizing the mechanics of an election.”
(The White House claimed Tuesday that Trump meant to refer to a national voter ID law. Trump’s language did not in fact reflect that idea, but even a national voter ID law is, in the words of Sean Morales-Doyle, the director of voting rights at the Brennan Center, “a solution in search of a problem that will unfortunately disenfranchise millions of Americans,” because it creates unnecessary paperwork hurdles to voting in a secure system.)
It’s doubtful a critical mass of Republicans in Congress would try to — or at least prevail in trying to — alter who has the authority to run elections. But Trump’s language still matters. He is ceaselessly spitballing about different gambits designed to destroy the public’s confidence in the election system and to justify an authoritarian seizure of power. And his constant attempts to sow distrust in that system have a cumulative effect.
Trump’s latest comments follow his remarks that sometimes a country “needs a dictator” and that he deserves a third term. And it comes as he’s already taken concrete steps to undermine confidence in the electoral system. Last week, FBI agents seized voting records from the 2020 election at an election center in Fulton County, raising the possibility that Trump will try to manufacture new “evidence” supporting the lie that the 2020 election was rigged against him. Trump’s allies will take note of his agenda to flood the zone with anti-democratic ploys. Within the administration, his yes-men know that they will gain the confidence of their boss if they come up with some new-fangled scheme to make past or future elections look rigged. Trump’s radicalized ICE agents are being trained for potential use to intimidate or repress voters under the banner of election security. And outside the administration, militant networks and hardcore MAGA activists may also do their part to cast doubt on any result that looks bad for the GOP in the midterms or in 2028. The damage Trump has already caused isn’t confined to one party. I hear friends on the left expressing fear that Trump will simply cancel the midterm elections. Again, he cannot do that. But having to constantly wonder whether Trump’s schemes could work or whether there will be a trustworthy election is itself a legitimacy crisis that can do irreparable damage to democracy.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer for MS NOW. 
